Houses

Electricity for homes and other necessary functions can be provided with steam engines. In additon to burning fuel, we can capture the energy from the exhaust of our internal combustion engines – after all, 2/3s of the energy from a car's fuel goes right out the tail pipe! - and we can use the heat from the chemical reactions in the B2M condenser. The blades of the turbine can be made with oak and lubricated with tallow from our sheep

Equally important is the Negawatt – a unit of energy that measures energy we never had to use. By using gravity, warm clothing, and well-designed buildings, we can reduce our energy needs to consume only what we produce.

Nature Stewardship

A big part of the stewardship of marginal land is to respect nature's intention for it. An oak tree drops thousands of acorns in its attempt to seed a new tree and only a fraction will happen to land where an adult oak would thrive. By transplanting a sprout to an ideal location, we've fulfilled nature's needs and we can responsibly feed the rest to the pigs, which converts the land's resources into food for the two-leggers.

Aquaponics

A space-efficient farming technique for raising fish and veggies in tandem. The fishes' waste becomes the plants' fertilizer as water is cycled through. Talapia, our fish of choice due to it's ability to convert feed nearly pound-for-pound to meat, require relatively warm water so the system's placement next to the B2M equipment is a great way to capture and use stray heat from the B2M process.

Gasifier

Energy is crucial to a thriving community. The B2M (Biomass to Methanol) process converts wood from responsible forest management to usable fuel that can power cars and tractors and provide monetary income. It is the keystone of the B2M village and is currently in the research phase – You can help! Become a critical part of the solution by subscribing with a small monthly donation.

The first step of the B2M process is gasification- the conversion of wood chips to gas. The B2M village will make the technology easily maintainable with parts that can purchased at a typical hardware store and structure the community to capture the massive sensible heat that would be lost into the air.

Compressor

Energy is crucial to a thriving community. The B2M (Biomass to Methanol) process converts wood from responsible forest management to usable fuel that can power cars and tractors and provide monetary income. It is the keystone of the B2M village and is currently in the research phase – You can help! Become a critical part of the solution by subscribing with a small monthly donation.

The second step is to compress the gas. An important part of making this process work on the village scale is to leave the monitoring to computer-managed programs – freeing up the community's time to work on other things.

Condensor

Energy is crucial to a thriving community. The B2M (Biomass to Methanol) process converts wood from responsible forest management to usable fuel that can power cars and tractors and provide monetary income. It is the keystone of the B2M village and is currently in the research phase – You can help! Become a critical part of the solution by subscribing with a small monthly donation.

The last step of the process is to condense the fuel. This chemical process puts off a great deal of heat, which can be captured to heat essential buildings and provide steam to power electricity generators.

Community

An incredibly important part of the B2M village system is culture. We have a tried and tested system of by-laws to help guide the decision-making and conflict-resolution portions of community interaction. We foster a culture of mutual support, including a gift economy that runs on labor and goods exchange.

Using every resource

Gardens grow food and weeds; the food goes to the kitchen, and the weeds go to the goats who convert them into milk for the kitchen and compost for the garden. Making a living on marginal land means using all of its resources and finding a multi-use place for everything it offers.

Plants on marginal lands

The B2M village is designed to work on marginal lands (since that is all that may be available to many communities). Our flagship village, Windward, rests in the mountains of Washington at 2,000 ft elevation, so the soil gets cold. Terraces help expose the soil to the sun and keep roots warm.

Hot tubs

It is infinitely easier to get along if everyone is clean and comfortable. Hot tubs also provide a place for recreation and community bonding. Though it may seem like a luxury, it's another way to scavenge energy from the sensible heat the Biomass to Methanol process puts out. It's position next to the B2m equipment makes harnessing the energy easier.

Laundry

An important part of a sustainable community is hygiene basics like clean clothes. We can achieve this energy-intensive task with scavenged energy from the Biomass to Methanol process, saving the community effort, money and emissions.

Bakery

As another energy-intensive building, the bakery is also positioned next to the B2M equipment to easily capture stray energy. A member of the community will be awarded stewardship of a community essential like baking, and will ask for or offer help from others as seasonal work fluctuates.

The B2M Village Project is an open source, community-based system of technologies and philosophies focused on building energy-independent, sustainable rural communities.

The first step of the B2M process is gasification‒the conversion of wood chips to gas. The B2M village will make the technology easily maintainable with parts that can purchased at a typical hardware store and structure the community to capture the massive sensible heat that would be lost into the air.

The second step is to compress the gas. An important part of making this process work on the village scale is to leave the monitoring to computer-managed programs – freeing up the community's time to work on other things.

The last step of the process is to condense the fuel. This chemical process puts off a great deal of heat, which can be captured to heat essential buildings and provide steam to power electricity generators.

By arranging energy-intensive buildings around the B2M equipment, we are able to scavenge the heat incredible heat that is put off by the process and put it to use. Laundry, bathing, baking, and greenhouses are close by to capitalize on the energy. Next, houses are heated by piping hot water through the floor. The last stop is as tepid water to irrigate ground crops.

A big part of the stewardship of marginal land is to respect nature's intention for it. An oak tree drops thousands of acorns in its attempt to seed a new tree and only a fraction will happen to land where an adult oak would thrive. By transplanting a sprout to an ideal location, we've fulfilled nature's needs and we can responsibly feed the rest to the pigs, which converts the land's resources into food for the two-leggers.

The B2M village is designed to work on marginal lands (since that is all that may be available to many communities). Our flagship village, Windward, rests in the mountains of Washington at 1,000 ft elevation, so the soil gets cold. Terraces help expose the soil to the sun and keep roots warm.

An incredibly important part of the B2M village system is culture. We have a tried and tested system of by-laws to help guide the decision-making and conflict-resolution portions of community interaction. We foster a culture of mutual support, including a gift economy that runs on labor and goods exchange.

A space-efficient farming technique for raising fish and veggies in tandem. The fishes' waste becomes the plants' fertilizer as water is cycled through. Talapia, our fish of choice due to it's ability to convert feed nearly pound-for-pound to meat, require relatively warm water so the system's placement next to the B2M equipment is a great way to capture and use stray heat from the B2M process.

Electricity for homes and other necessary functions can be provided with steam engines. In addition to burning fuel, we can capture the energy from the exhaust of our internal combustion engines – after all, two thirds of the energy from a car's fuel goes right out the tail pipe! - and we can use the heat from the chemical reactions in the B2M condenser. The bearings lades of the turbine can be made with oak and lubricated with tallow from our sheep

Equally important is the Negawatt – a unit of energy that measures energy we never had to use. By using gravity, warm clothing, and well-designed buildings, we can reduce our energy needs to consume only what we produce.

Routine plant maintenance produces pounds and pounds of weeds which are happily fed to the animals. Making a living on marginal land means using all of its resources and finding a multi-use place for everything it offers.

B2M scalability timeline

Community News

Permaculture Spring Break

March 21-24, 2016

4-days putting permaculture theory into practice

The Village Helix

May 27-30, 2016

Windward's annual open-house event

What's B2M?

The Biomass 2 Methanol Village (B2M) is an open-source, community-based project focused on creating energy-independent, sustainable communities worldwide. We believe it will take a global network of villages to create ecological sustainability, and we are dedicated to creating a working village model.

What's B2M got to do with sustainability?

International energy companies are undermining the Earth, and B2M offers communities an opportunity to produce their own energy while stewarding their lands in a manner that is ecologically and economically sound.

B2M's village focus first encourages a small ecological footprint through whole-system design that produces negawatts. It then empowers communities to harvest local biomass energy through holistic ecosystem management and convert it into gasoline, diesel, propane and natural gas for local community use.

How does B2M support local community?

B2M empowers communities worldwide to break free from dependency on big energy corporations by producing their own energy. Every dollar's worth of fuel produced locally is a dollar towards helping local community thrive. By enabling communities to start the supply chain‒instead of being trapped at its end‒B2M provides local communities the power to shape their own future.

Why does energy sovereignty matter?

Village-scale energy sovereignty gives people greater control and autonomy over their lives and communities, empowering individuals to create a better world. When we are no longer reliant on unaccountable energy corporations to meet our basic needs, we are capable of creating a resilient culture that balances the well-being of our local communities and the ecosystems that support us.

Why is a smaller, recurring donation better for research?

Small, recurring donations allow the work to mimic the development of organic networks. By building in community involvement from the start, we ensure that as B2M unfolds, it will create an alternative to the multinational energy corporations.

What's the timeline for the B2M research?

We've already worked out how to turn forest waste into woodgas, a functional replacement for natural gas. We're currently working to analyse, store, compress and process woodgas.